Most recently, Amazon announced that it has procured three Falcon 9 launches from SpaceX to facilitate the deployment of its Project Kuiper mega-constellation, which is a direct competitor to Musk’s Starlink.
This development follows closely on the heels of a lawsuit against Amazon, which surfaced approximately two months ago, by shareholders challenging the company’s decision to exclude SpaceX, renowned as the most dependable rocket company globally, from its initial round of launch contract considerations.
Funnily enough, Elon Musk posted on X that launching competitors satellites is not an issue for him. “Fair and square,” he said. This is after Musk has launched his batch of 23 Starlink satellites on November 27.
Why Amazon finally chose SpaceX
In 2019, Amazon had ordered for launching 77 Kupier satellites from Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance, Arianespace and ABL. But delays in the development of those rockets to launch satellites have led Amazon to change plans.
The company twice switched the rocket that its first pair of Kuiper prototypes would fly on, in an effort to expedite development, before the mission launched in October, this year. This strategic move has anticipated to cost billions of dollars to Amazon.
Then came a lawsuit against Jeff Bezos and Amazon in 2023, filed by Amazon shareholders Cleveland Bakers and Teamster Pension Fund. They claimed that Bezos did not even spend an hour discussing the possibility of any other space company, and chose Blue Origin, Bezos’s own space company.
According to the legal complaint, Amazon management briefed the audit committee in July 2020 about ongoing discussions with Blue Origin, Arianespace, ULA, and an undisclosed fourth company for Kuiper launch contracts. The lawsuit alleges that, perplexingly, SpaceX, recognised as the world’s most famous, reliable, and obvious launch provider, was not even presented as an option during these discussions.
Meanwhile, scheduled for liftoff from mid-2025 onwards, the three Falcon 9 missions are integral to Amazon’s Kuiper’s ambitious plan of establishing a constellation comprising 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit. The US Federal Communications Commission mandated that Amazon deploy a minimum of half of this satellite count by 2026.
Amazon is also expecting to invest upwards of $10 billion to build Kuiper. Earlier this year, the company broke ground on a $120 million pre-launch processing facility in Florida.
The SpaceX deal marks the latest shift in Amazon’s strategy, and possibly an acceptance of its fate amidst the timeframe, as the company pushes to get Kuiper to space in time to meet federal regulations.
SpaceX ♥️ Competition ♥️ Collaboration
SpaceX has been launching satellites for its customers and competitors all this while. Just recently, it also launched Korea 425 reconnaissance satellite and 24 other rideshare payloads.
Moreover, Capella Space, an American space technology company is also launching its satellites called Acadia-4 and Acadia-5, with SpaceX after continuously working with Rocket Lab for earlier satellite launches.
In June, SpaceX also launched Indian startup Azista BST Aerospace’s satellites for remote-sensing capabilities. The founder, Sunil Indruti, said that he chose SpaceX Falcon 9 instead of ISRO’s PSLV because the former had a slot for the satellite in the rocket.
On the other hand, in July, L&T, ISRO, and IN-SPACe, had together decided to compete with SpaceX and decided to focus on SSLV for on demand launch. This is exactly what SpaceX has been doing by launching satellites for other companies.
Musk has been constantly appreciating ISRO’s efforts, which has been launching several other companies’ satellites in space. He has also been collaborating with Indian space companies for a very long time. In 2021, Musk announced that he would partner with Indian firms for building satellite communications equipment.
This is not the first time that Musk is working with a competitor. Starting in January this year, SpaceX had deployed more than 40 satellites for OneWeb by March end. OneWeb is a British broadband operator, with a majority stake by Bharti Enterprises. OneWeb might be considered as a rival to Musk’s Starlink. But Musk doesn’t care.
SpaceX and OneWeb were not happy with working together earlier and had filed negative comments against the Federal Communications Commision (FCC) for sharing radio frequencies in space. But later in June 2022, the conflict between SpaceX and OneWeb was surprisingly resolved after both the companies decided to work together, without any discussions.
Reliance recently announced that it is working on its own satellite services called JioSpaceFiber to compete with Musk’s Starlink. It would be ideal for them to either launch them through ISRO, or maybe get SpaceX to launch the satellites. It is clear that Musk knows space is about collaboration, and not competition.
